by Lauren » January 30th, 2015, 7:29 am
Ohh...I can defiantly name things that I don't like about 1.5:
1. A waste of opportunity
- I really do not understand why out of all the characters from the entire trilogy, Timon and Pumbaa were chosen to be the main characters for this movie in particular. They work as comedic/minor characters, but they do not fit into the protagonist territory. If this was to be taking place before the events of TLK and SP, then I would've made it a prequel about Mufasa and Scar's childhood and how they came into terms of their positions in a monarchial family. I would love to know how Scar received his scar, how did Scar meet the hyenas, how Mufasa's relationship with his own father was like since he told Simba that he learned about the Great Kings of the Past being the stars by his father, how Mufasa met Sarabi, how did Pride Rock come into play as being a very important place for the royal family, how did the monarchial family begin, and etc. All those things would've been so much more interesting to learn about if this was a prequel.
- If they made this as the sequel to Simba's Pride, then I would've loved to see Kiara and Kovu receiving training to become the future king and queen from Simba and Nala. We never saw Simba receiving training from Mufasa since Scar killed his father, so I always wanted to see how actual training is like between the parent and child since they become next in line for the throne. If Kiara and Kovu became the next king and queen and had children, then I would've love to see how Simba and Nala are like as grandparents. It would've been so cool. As far as the conflict, I'm not sure what kind of problem they could face, but I would hope that it was effective enough for the story.
2. Too much is centered on Timon
- Like I said, Timon and Pumbaa don't work as main characters, but I don't like that Timon gets even more screentime seeing how he's one of my least favorite characters. Pumbaa doesn't receive as much emphasis as Timon does, which is quite annoying because it makes it seem like it's all about him all the time even when Pumbaa is with him. His background is not that interesting, though I think his mother is a decent character.
3. All the great moments ruined
- Sorta simliar to my problem with Timon and Pumbaa being in Simba's Pride, they do the same thing here, but they visually ruin the scenes. For example, when Simba was about to see Mufasa as a ghost in the sky, we do see his ghost form building up, but then Timon makes some ridiculous comment by saying that the weather is probably starting to act up.
4. Misleading title
- It's called The Lion King for a reason.
The ONLY things I do like in this movie are the Simba scenes since we got to see at least one scene from each stage of his growth (cub, teen, and adult). I enjoyed him beating Timon in the snail slurping contest since that was fun to watch and one of the few funny moments I found in the movie. Also, they did get most of the actors from the original to return to voice the same characters and the animation is good. That's it.